A TEACHER dismissed for being too strict has ridiculed the Government's calls for zero tolerance in classrooms and set up a website to highlight "indiscipline" in schools.

Thomas Kelly was suspended from teaching at Blessed Edward Oldcorne Catholic College after an incident in January 2004, when he wrestled a 14-year-old pupil to the ground to stop him breaking school property and pulling his tie.

Although a tribunal found he had been unfairly dismissed, it concluded that Mr Kelly had "contributed to" his own dismissal and he was later ordered to pay £5,600 in costs.

In the next fortnight, Mr Kelly is planning to post 130 reports of poor behaviour from his time at the Worcester school on a new website for parents - www.school-discipline.co.uk.

"It is not that I disagreed with the headteacher, Sean Devlin, on everything, but parents just do not know what is going on in classrooms - even in schools where the Ofsted reports and results are good," he said.

"I have 130 reports that I wrote, everything from being sworn at and abused to having things thrown at me.

"Why should teachers have to take it?

"I read one headteacher, who said it was tougher to earn kids' respect nowadays. When did teachers have to start earning respect from pupils?"

Mr Kelly has taught at a number of other schools around the region during the past six years, including stints in Elgar Technology College, in Worcester, John Masefield High School, in Ledbury, and St Nicholas' CE Middle School, in Pinvin.

His traditional disciplinarian style, which involves warning, shouting at and then giving detentions to trouble makers, has led to clashes with headteachers.

He left John Masefield after being told that his style was "inconsistent" with school policy and was criticised in his employment tribunal for giving detentions without the proper 24-hour written notice to parents.

"Smart kids know that if a teacher can't detain them without written warning, they don't have to do anything you say," said Mr Kelly, from New York, who came to the UK 18 years ago.

"If I want a word with a kid who was misbehaving and I said 'Come here', they just say 'No you can't detain me, even for a minute, without notice'. It's an unworkable system.

"In the end, pupils can do anything they like. Kids point the finger and the teacher gets hung.

"Effectively, teachers are being told not to discipline pupils. Am I the only one who finds that odd?"

After his experience in schools, he is convinced that Education Secretary Ruth Kelly's tough talk on "zero tolerance" in classrooms is political rhetoric.

He has recounted his story - and the result of his tough approach to discipline - in a letter to Ms Kelly.

"I don't think she really understands what she is saying," said the 56-year-old, who lives in Maybank, Malvern.

"I would say I'm a zero tolerance teacher but here I am unemployed and, apparently, unemployable, because of it.

"If Ruth Kelly is serious about tackling indiscipline it would require a huge change - a momentous and fundamental sea change in how schools are run.

"Her rhetoric is not backed up by anything that will change the way poor behaviour is dealt with in schools, which have become too soft."

Mr Devlin, Blessed Edward's headteacher, declined to comment on specific incidents during Mr Kelly's time at the school, adding that the tribunal and ensuing appeal - which dismissed the teacher's case - was sufficient.

However, he said teachers had to learn a range of skills to carry out the job in a modern school.

"Teachers have to become very good at developing the craft of teaching, so that pupils feel valued and prepared to get on with the work," he said.

"There's no easy solution and comprehensive schools have a wide variety of intake.

"We have some pupils from very good homes and others that are not and we have to work with all the different pupils we have.

"The challenge is to have good lessons, well prepared and a culture that values pupils."

Mr Kelly admitted that his strict disciplinarian style was not popular with everyone.

He has been given warnings and even a mentor to stop him doling out punishment.

Blessed Edward's headteacher Sean Devlin, who was recently characterised in a television drama for his work in restoring order at an inner city London school, declined to comment on Mr Kelly's claims.

At the tribunal in July, Mr Kelly was criticised by the chairman Charles Rostant for deliberately breaking school policy on discipline and launching a "lone and righteous crusade" on indiscipline.

The DfES did not comment on Mr Kelly's claims that the zero tolerance approach was ill-thought through, but reiterated the Education Secretary's words.

"Pupils who lack respect for themselves, respect for their classmates, and respect for their teachers need to be made to take responsibility for their own actions," she said.

"Every pupil and every teacher has the right to expect a safe, secure and orderly classroom."

Do you think teachers should have more power in the classroom? Contact Suzanne Black on 01905 742263 or e-mail sb@thisisworcester.co.uk